TNF and columnar cell hyperplasia of the breast: It is becoming increasingly clear that the inflammatory process of CCH is the activation of nuclear factor-B (NF-B) and activator protein-1 (AP-1) leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines like tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), which in turn activates cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs; Rosenberg et al., 2014; Yan et al., 2021).